Amid her continued recovery from a severe leg injury, Lindsey Vonn has received support from soccer legends Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimović.
On Monday, Feb. 23, Vonn revealed she could have lost her leg as the result of her crash in the downhill at the Milano Cortina Olympics earlier this month.
The skiing star said that in addition to complex tibial fracture in her left leg, she had a tibial plateau fracture and fractured fibular head. She also broke her right ankle. Vonn said her severe injuries led to compartment syndrome, which could have resulted in her leg being amputated.
‘Compartment syndrome is when you have so much trauma to one area of your body, that there’s too much blood, and it gets stuck, and it basically crushes everything in the compartment,’ Vonn said in an Instagram post.
‘All the muscle and nerves and tendons, it all kind of dies. And Dr. Tom Hackett saved my leg. He saved my leg from being amputated.’
Vonn received thousands of supportive comments on her Instagram post, including from global icons Ronaldo and Ibrahimović.
‘Champions are defined by the moments they win, and the moments they refuse to give up,’ Ronaldo said. ‘@lindseyvonn the mountains you conquered were never bigger than the strength you carry. Keep fighting. Legends always rise.’
Ibrahimović added simply: ‘Giving up is not an option.’
Vonn was hospitalized in Italy for a little over a week before being transferred to a hospital in Colorado. She said she is hoping to be on crutches in a few weeks, with the bones unlikely to fully heal for a year.
The 41-year-old will then decide whether to undergo surgery for the torn ACL she suffered in the same leg a week before the Olympics started.